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Russian national Pavel Kublitskii and Kazakhstan national Alexandr Khodyrev were arrested for involvement with the dark web platform WWH Club and related forums Skynetzone, Opencard, and Center-Club.
Originally, the two arrived in Florida and requested asylum, which was granted by the Department of Homeland Security. However, their luxurious lifestyle without a clear income source attracted the authorities’ attention, leading to their arrest.
When requesting asylum, both individuals provided DHS with the same residence address in Hollywood, Florida. However, shortly after, Kublitskii opened an account in the Bank of America with $50,000 cash and rented a luxury house. Khodyrev, on the other hand, bought a 2023 Corvette with around $110,000 cash, all while appearing unemployed.
This triggered alarms with law enforcement, who investigated the matter further and found that the two men were involved with the aforementioned dark web forums. WWH Club and the other forums are online marketplaces that allow cyber crooks to buy, sell, and trade malware, login credentials, personally identifiable information (PII), fake identification documents, and financial credentials. In some cases, they even provide training to aspiring cyber criminals.
The FBI investigation revealed that several other top administrators operate the site and share the revenue. In this case, one of these administrators was working under the moniker “Makein,” which the FBI has probable cause to believe was shared by Kublitskii and Khodyrev.
Once probable cause was determined, the FBI was able to request the court to authorise the criminal complaint and charge the suspects with conspiracy for trafficking in authorised access devices and possession of over 15 unauthorised access devices.
Kublitski has already been arrested, and there’s no word on Khodyrev’s arrest. In the meantime, the WWH forums are operating as usual. Other administrators have acknowledged that the suspects were, in fact, involved, but only as moderators.
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